


Cyberias Legacy

by SmolSoldier46



Category: The Mechanisms (Band)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, How Do I Tag, Hurt/Comfort, Sibling Bonding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-01
Updated: 2020-08-01
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:35:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,961
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25638895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SmolSoldier46/pseuds/SmolSoldier46
Summary: While exploring a planet Nastya finds a biography written about her home planet on a shelf and is hit with a aching desire to know what the people think of her legacy.I tried :)
Relationships: Jonny d'Ville & Nastya Rasputina, The Aurora/Nastya Rasputina
Kudos: 49





	Cyberias Legacy

It was odd for short, Nastya had not been expecting to find this book in the first place but now that she saw it she couldn't pretend it hadn't existed. The book in question was relatively new, a recent publication probably, and had a glossy finish to the cover featuring a young girl with brown hair and glasses. At first she thought it was a random novel considering the fact that many people had brown hair and glasses. ‘It could've been anyone’ she thought, that was until she made out a familiar but almost distant name in the title. Written in neat white lettering was Anastasia Nikolaevna Rasputina, a name she had assumed faded into the back of everyone's minds.

Johnny was present during this discovery tugging impatiently on her arm and complaining about how only Ivy would find use in robbing a book store but she stood firm in shock at the discovery. After a minute he managed to take in the shift of emotion and stopped his insistence to move on, turning to look at the book displayed front and center. 

“Is that?”

“Yes,” Nastya rushed out in a slight panic.

There was a moment of silence between the two, one of understanding but also distance. Johnny knows what she's been through and what she's lost like the back of his hand despite his seemingly merciless nature it would hurt more than any death to watch someone he trusts so deeply break over something she can't fix. That's what convinced him to get the book, a biography written by a man who studied cyberian literature and their royal family, Nastyas family. It was difficult for the both of them but they couldn't just pretend this didn't exist, that Nastyas past wasn't in some way tied to her both mentally and physically. 

“Maybe it's not that bad it could just be a vague understanding or meaningless theories nobody believes,” Johnny commented, tossing the book between his hands haphazardly.

“I don't know if that would be better or worse,” she mumbled fidgeting with her fingers tracing vein after vein. “On one hand I don’t like what they might say of my family, on the other hand I don’t know what they’ll say about me.”

Johnny had never been good at discussing emotions whether they be his or anothers and in this scenario he was undeniably at a loss. They had the book now and if they were able to turn back that was a long time ago. The only thing he could even think of doing was staying near and taking the book away if it got too rough.

“I can stay by if that's what you want,” he chuckled trying to keep the mood light.

Nastya smirked slightly at the offer. “That might be nice.”

As soon as they got back to the Aurora Nastya hid seeking comfort from her dear beloved leaving Johnny in the common room with the book. Tim glanced over at the two confused sensing the more morbid tone shift in the room. 

“A piece from her past,” Johnny stated leaving little room for question.

Tim nodded in understanding and went back to fiddling with his guitar and jotting any random line that came to his head on a piece of paper. This wasn’t something he was obliged to get involved with and it wasn’t like he wanted to discuss his past in an open environment even if the rest of the crew understood. All of this meant he couldn't be rough with Nastya for running from whatever this was. 

Johnny passed the common room walking through the Auroras halls to deliver the book to Nastyas room, she wouldn't be in it for a while often preferring to stay with her lover when things got rough, commonly in an air vent or closet, before making her way back out. It opened rather easily and he quickly finished his task opting to leave the bag on her bed and make his way far from it as quickly as possible.

Nastya had opted to do as she did best when upset, dote on her lover. It was nice to have someone on this ship who she could always return to with barely any worries, even if that someone was the ship itself. Today Aurora needed repairs to a series of wires and, if she was graced with the time, a reinforcement to her flooring in one of the docking bays. It was easy to get lost with her sweetheart and Nastya quickly found herself focused intently on the task at hand for hours upon hours without rest. As she worked she began to list more and more improvements making the rather short notes into a long list.

It wasn't until a week later when Nastya had finally completed her ever growing list of work and was cuddling with a warm generator when she thought about the book again. This one thing would influence this universe's thoughts on her past life. She knew it wouldn't be as bad as she could think, if people couldn't recognize Anastasia then what hope is there that they could recognize her but that sneaking small piece of her still feared it. At first she wanted to be recognized as Anastasia the princess, a woman of power and beauty, but now all she wanted was to be rid of everything related to her past. At this point it was impossible to tell if the book was a purchase of impulse or a purchase of intent. 

It took only two days after that to decide to read it and get the experience over with. She interrupted Johnny and dragged him to a closed off area deep in the Aurora making sure that nobody would interrupt them. Johnny didn’t ask questions knowing this was already a touchy subject and his sarcastic and humorous comments would only cause more problems in this moment. Nastya held the book close to her chest taking in a couple deep breaths before opening it and reading the first page out loud to the two before skimming through the index pronouncing only the things she deemed important off the top of her head.

“Introduction, traditions, government, queens, kings, sons, daughters,” she trailed off on the last one.

“Do you wanna try to do this in order or jump around it?” Johnny asked curiously.

Nastya took a minute to debate her options “I think we should go in order chronological details and all that.”

Johnny nodded, “Right, Ivy would have a field day if you only read half of it completely out of order, god forbid the whole book.”

Nastya giggled at that turning the page and taking in a deep breath to begin the biography of her life, written from an outsider's point of view. “Chapter 1 Introduction.”

It went well for a while with only a few hiccups. Nastya would read fine before pausing for a minute and then continuing again. Eventually they went out and collected a couple cups of tea, courtesy of the toy soldier, and some pencils, courtesy of Rapheallas habit of note taking even when not in the lab. From there on Nastya was quite vocal when she found something off scratching it out with a pencil and explaining to Johnny in detail how it actually worked. Johnny wasn’t paying much attention but that didn’t stop her and it undeniably loosened the tight atmosphere between the two since they found this book.There was an almost domestic sibling like atmosphere between them, almost being the key word.

“This isn't right,” Nastya mumbled, barely audible to Johnny.

“What isn't right? The whole book?” he asked looking at her.

Nastya began to flip through the novel furiously circling and scratching and rewriting the text she saw. “None of this is right! None of this whole damn thing is correct!” she mumbled her voice growing louder as she skimmed barely containing her fury. 

She continued doing this for a short period of time, her actions growing more rage filled as she continued flipping back and forth correcting everything till her pencil snapped in half. She tossed the book not bothering to look where it landed instead opting to curl into a ball. It slammed into the door, falling to the ground full pages scratched out furiously at varying degrees of efficiency. One was a picture of her small and young still filled with a child's innocence. 

Johnny watched as the book slammed shocked by her sudden outburst before making his way over to Nastya. 

“That wasn’t me, none of those pictures were me,” she explained, still huddled up. “That's some girl I don't know, it's fake.”

Johnny watched her unsure of how to comfort her in this situation. He never really cared about how he was perceived on his planet after his mechanisation but Nastya was different. Maybe Tim would be able to help her, maybe Ashes if you really tried, but no Johnny was the one with this responsibility.This situation was a challenge for him and something he hadn't had to deal with in a long time, if he had to deal with it at all, the good thing is that Johnny is a very stubborn man in the face of challenge. 

“Aren’t you ok with that?” he asked. “Isn’t it better if they don’t know who you are? You won’t have to worry that way you can just be Nastya Rasputina not Ana Ana-stash-e-a?”

Nastya moaned at his attempt at her old name, “Anastasia, Johnny. I-I don’t really know for sure, a small part of me when I was younger hoped that maybe I would be memorialized in some way , that I would be a good ruler or a well known and fair woman I would've never thought I would end up here.”

“Maybe that's a good thing,” Johnny interrupted. “Think about it, if you spent all your life in that crummy old castle then you’d never meet us. You would never know me or Tim, you would never know of the Toy Soldier and their feats or Raphealla and her crazy experiments. You would never have fallen in love with Aurora and get to see her everyday of her life if you were still in that crummy old palace. This isn’t ideal for any of us but here we are and maybe, just maybe, it's for the best.”

Nastya glanced at Johnny before breaking into laughter as his face twisted into one of annoyance, “That's gotta be the most sentimental thing I have ever heard you say Johnny!”

Johnny looked at her, his face full of betrayal, “I give you some great life advice and this is the thanks I get?!”

“It's not that I'm not grateful it's just I would’ve expected that from Brian.”

“Well Brians not here right now so I’m the best you’ve got,” Johnny pouted standing and picking up the discarded book. “Now I’m not the best with emotions but I do know one thing that makes almost anyone feel better and that is a wonderful little thing called arson.”

“Are you suggesting we burn the book?” Nastya asked, pushing herself up from the floor.

“I'm suggesting we burn this one and any others we come by.”

Nastya laughed at the statement, feeling as the Aurora hummed under her feet in amusement. She didn't always like her predicament and it was never going to be perfect nor was it going to be exactly how it was back then. But at the most she has a family now, more than she had back at her kingdom. This ragtag team of immortal morons was her family and she wouldn’t change it for the world. 

“You know what Johnny, that seems like a good idea.”


End file.
